Predictions for 2013

With the end of the year drawing closer and closer, it's hard to ignore the warnings of the end of the world, which is set to be on December 21, 2012 according to the Mayan calender. Popular television shows, like Doomsday Preppers, only hypes up the date more. The show rates participants on how long they are expected to survive after a disaster, like the failure of the global economy or Yellowstone erupting, occurs. I decided to take the online quiz to find out how long I would survive after the world ends on December 21, 2012. Based on my storage of food and water, shelter, and security, I would survive for 1 to 2 weeks. So if the world does end on this rapidly approaching date, I will not be around for much of 2013.

Disastrous Drought

According to the Drought Monitor report, 62% of the continental United States is in a drought. With almost two thirds of the country in a drought, forest fires are burning and crops are failing. The most obvious indication of the severe drought that is overtaking our nation is the 3,700-acre wildfire that is burning in Colorado near the Rocky Mountains. Peaks that are normally covered with snow at this time of year are burning. The Great Plains are experiencing the worst of it with some places having  falling eight to fourteen inches of precipitation less than is normal over the past three months. The wheat crop has been suffering with about a quarter of it in poor condition. Hopefully, the country experiences more precipitation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/us/season-has-changed-but-the-drought-endures.html?ref=us

Is College Tuition Prices Beginning to Drop?

According to the College Board, the average tuition of both public and private colleges is going down. Currently, the average yearly cost for in-state students attending public colleges is $8,240. Private colleges cost $28,500 yearly for in-state students. However, one private college in Charlotte, North Carolina is reducing its yearly tuition by 33%. Belmont Abbey College is reducing its cost from $27,500 to $18,500. William Thierfelder, the president of Belmont Abbey College, said "It seemed a little bit like madness, with costs going up each year, we were raising tuition each year, only to give it back on the financial aid side to help students be able to afford it." The hope is that potential students who only look at the price of colleges, which discourages them from applying, will consider attending the college.

http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/30/college-cuts-its-tuition-by-33/?hpt=hp_bn1

Movember

The rules for Movember are straightforward, start November with no hair and let a mustache grow until the end of the month. Started by a group of thirty men in Australia in the year 2003, Movember has now become an organization that seeks to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer. Since this type of cancer has not had much attention, the CEO and co-founder, Adam Garone, believes that, what started off as a social experiment, should represent something greater. Last year, $126,300,000 was raised by 855,203 mustache-growing participants. This year, over 1,000,000 participants are expected. All of the money goes to Movember, the Livestrong Foundation, and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/24/health/movember-preview/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Yet He Says He's Not a Hero

As Hurricane Sandy got closer and closer to Breezy Point, a coastal community in New York City, a fire broke out. Joe Adinolfi, an off-duty fireman, decided that he needed to get out of his home and evacuate. Suddenly, he heard the cries of elderly women who were clinging to an SUV despite the strong winds and fire. Adinolfi rescued them and their several dogs and a parrot before bringing them back to his home. Once they arrived safely, one of the ladies told him about her autistic brother, his Spanish-speaking aid, and a family that were gripping a fence and in danger. After Adinolfi also brought them to safety, he had brought the total number of people he saved to nine. But still, he claims that “it was nothing, really.” Though he claims that he is not a hero, his heroic actions saved many people.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/02/14881881-off-duty-firefighter-rescued-9-people-a-parrot-and-a-few-dogs-in-hurricane-sandy?lite

Suspension for Long-haired Teen

Zach Aufderheide, a junior at Canton South High School in Ohio, has been punished with a three day in-school suspension for growing his hair nine inches long. A victim of bullying, Aufderjeide wanted to grow his hair ten inches long in order to donate it to the charity, Locks of Love. Though he is only an inch short of his goal, school officials said that he is violating the school policy, which doesn’t allow students to have hair that disrupts class or blocks others’ view. However, Zach says that he always keeps his hair in a tidy ponytail.

http://thelook.today.com/_news/2012/10/25/14698368-quite-a-tangle-teen-suspended-for-growing-hair-for-charity?lite

Available Online Only

The Editor in Chief of Newsweek, Tina Brown, announced last Thursday that the magazine’s last printed edition will come out on December 31, 2012. This is because of the shift that Newsweek is making to digitalize the entire magazine. This decision comes after eighty years of publication. The magazine’s financial crisis in recent years and the merging of Newsweek and the Daily Beast in 2010 lead up to this decision. A recent report by the Pew Research Center revealed that 39% of Americans go online to get news updates. This new format of the magazine will target a “highly mobile” audience.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-newsweek-to-end-print-edition-20121017,0,4478257.story

$2 Million for Harvard Admission

            A former Harvard professor has been accused of charging a Hong Kong couple two million dollars to assure that their two children were admitted to an Ivy League school, preferably Harvard. The couple, Gerald and Lily Chow, has filed a lawsuit against Mark Zimney for fraud.  Though their two kids received tutoring, people can’t arrange for students to attend a particular university. College admissions have become increasingly competitive. Harvard had an acceptance rate of 6.2 percent last year. Even though neither of the Chow kids got into Harvard, both are enrolled in other Ivy League schools.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49373698/ns/us_news-education_nation/  

Bus Crash Leads to DWI Charges

Hearing the words “school bus” and “accident” in the same sentence is always a frightening experience. Thankfully, the parents of five children ages five through eight can be happy that their kids were not injured in a school bus accident that happen last Wednesday in Long Island, New York. Frederick Flowers, the bus driver, crashed the mini school bus into the home of Christina Percell. Though none of the children were injured, Flowers had to be airlifted to a hospital. He was then arrested and charged with several counts of driving while intoxicated, endangerment of the welfare of a child, and reckless endangerment. No one, except for two dogs, was in the home at the time of the crash. The dogs were okay. 

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/04/14222506-long-island-school-bus-driver-crashes-into-house-charged-with-dwi?lite#__utma=238145375.1810079293.1339676120.1349042425.1349436522.17&__utmb=238145375.5.9.1349437018942&__utmc=238145375&__utmx=-&__utmz=238145375.1347204993.10.7.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=today%20show&__utmv=238145375.|8=Earned%20By=todayshow%7Ctoday=1^12=Landing%20Content=Mixed=1^13=Landing%20Hostname=today.msnbc.msn.com=1^30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Mixed=1&__utmk=156386808

Cyberattacks on Banks

Beginning on September 19^th, the Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and PNC Bank websites all faced cyberattacks in which the websites were very slow and sometimes unreachable. The attacks involved large amounts of traffic directed towards the websites to make them crash. This type of attack is known as a “denial of service” attack. These recent attacks were the largest ever and the Islamic group Izz ad-Din al-Qassum Cyber Fighters declared accountability. However, some people believe that the skill involved in planning these attacks was too high for the Cyber Fighters to have caused it.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/27/technology/bank-cyberattacks/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Suing the Century 16 Theater

Three of the injured victims of the Aurora movie theater massacre are suing the owner of the Century 16 Theater. The shooting, which killed 12 and wounded 58 others, took place during the midnight showing of “The Dark Night Rises” at a Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado in July. The lawsuits claim that there could have been more security that may have been able to prevent the shooting. A temporary memorial that had been near the theater was recently taken down. After a survey was conducted on Facebook, it has been decided that the theater will re-open in 2013.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/21/14016516-three-aurora-theater-shooting-victims-suing-cinemark-theater-to-reopen-in-2013?lite

 

Men vs. Women Wage Gap

Last week, the Census Bureau released part of its extensive annual report on income and poverty. The report showed that women made 77 cents to each dollar a man earned in 2011, a statistic that hasn’t changed much in the last four years. However, some believe that it’s not that the gap isn’t being closed between men and women but that wages have reached a plateau. Male-dominated work was hit hard during the recession of 2007-09 and this lead to women earning more than their husbands in 2009. But as the economy got better, this changed. Still, unemployment rate for men was higher than the unemployment rate for women in August.

http://lifeinc.today.com/_news/2012/09/14/13848108-women-face-stubborn-wage-gap-as-wages-fall-for-everyone?lite#__utma=238145375.1810079293.1339676120.1347675968.1347715882.13&__utmb=238145375.7.10.1347715882&__utmc=238145375&__utmx=-&__utmz=238145375.1347204993.10.7.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=today%20show&__utmv=238145375.|8=Earned%20By=todayshow%7Ctoday%7Ctoday%20news%7Cthe%20royals=1^12=Landing%20Content=External=1^13=Landing%20Hostname=today.msnbc.msn.com=1^30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20External=1&__utmk=1205234

The Price of Remembrance

The National September 11^th Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center in New York, which features two large, reflecting pools with waterfalls around them in the place of where the twin towers once were and a yet-to-be completed underground museum, is projected to cost $60 million a year to function. The memorial that cost $700 million to build will use $12 million a year just for security. The operating of the waterfalls will cost between $4.5 million and $5 million a year. Because the museum has not been completed on time, the financial planning has been disrupted.  Fundraising, the sale of memorabilia, private donations, and money made from admission prices to the museum will help to cover the large cost of running the memorial.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48960348/ns/us_news-security/

Itching to Stop the Spread of the West Nile Virus

As a summer stuffed with excruciatingly hot temperatures and significant rain in many parts of the United States winds down, the West Nile Virus has become more and more prevalent in 48 states across the country. The virus, which is transmitted through mosquito bites, has infected 1,013 people and has resulted in 40 deaths in Texas alone. 54 percent of cases are the dangerous neuroinvasive type that can lead to meningitis. The past week has seen a 25 percent jump in cases throughout the nation. Luckily, pesticides that have been sprayed have helped to lessen the mosquito population.

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/05/13682621-west-nile-cases-jump-25-percent-in-a-week-cdc-says?lite&__utma=238145375.1810079293.1339676120.1346241222.1346875464.9&__utmb=238145375.1.10.1346875464&__utmc=238145375&__utmx=-&__utmz=238145375.1346875464.9.6.utmcsr=google|utmccn=%28organic%29|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=the%20today%20show&__utmv=238145375.|8=Earned%20By=todayshow%7Ctoday=1^12=Landing%20Content=Mixed=1^13=Landing%20Hostname=today.msnbc.msn.com=1^30=Visit%20Type%20to%20Content=Earned%20to%20Mixed=1&__utmk=55266664